Finally had opportunity to get into Stew's self-service garage today, replacing an O2 sensor on my daughter's "new" '03 Beetle. I'd been considering a few projects I wanted to try myself, and decided this was about as easy a repair as I could find to get in and see what the place is all about.
https://stewsgarage.com
It's located just off 405 in Kirkland, had two 4 post lifts and 5 2 post lifts. Each bay has a wide assortment of handtools as well as air-powered tools. Specialty tools are available as well. In addition there are mechanics that work there who are willing to help answer questions and provide guidance on repairs.
For those that are interested in doing their own thing, but need a large dry place to work, or who lack the tools, or want to use a lift, this seems to be a great solution.
The hourly rates for the lifts are about half or slightly less than half of what a garage would charge for labor, and it's bring your own parts. If someone (like me!) has no clue what they are doing I can see the lift fees costing more, which can hopefully be made up on the cost of parts. However there's benefit to DIY, especially in learning to do things on your own. That's personally while I am trying this route - if something happens on the trail I'm going to have to rely on myself.
For simple things like oil changes, I honestly still can't beat going to Jiffy Lube. They constantly publish coupons and it's hard to beat the pricing, although you have to watch them closely (the last time I went to the one in Kirkland they started filling oil before replacing the drain plug).
As Aaron mentioned, the speciality tools seem to be one of the biggest benefits. The lifts make things so easy, having all the tools arranged in drawers by size, etc. No hunting around for the 10mm socket you were holding 10 seconds before, etc. And having a knowledgeable mechanic available to assist if needed sure helps.
Seems like not having the right specialty tools is a leading reason for those projects taking too
Ed, did you find Stew's cost-effective? Truck maintenance usually takes me about 10 times longer than it should, so I've never given Stew's a try for fear of the hours racking up.
Those are value-added services that they'll be providing later.
I find it hard to believe that working on vehicle with a lift, the correct tools and dry surroundings would be better than laying on a crappy broken exposed aggregate driveway in the rain :-)